


Secret Injury

by watcherofworlds



Series: Whumptober 2019 [24]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen, Injury, Prompt Fill, Whumptober, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 14:09:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21180716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watcherofworlds/pseuds/watcherofworlds
Summary: Prompt fill for Whumptober Day 24 "Secret Injury"





	Secret Injury

Oliver was in agony. He was nursing an injury- a long deep slash across his ribs that made moving difficult and breathing properly next to impossible. But he had to be careful not to show any external signs of how much he was hurting- the team didn’t know he’d been injured. He hadn’t been intending to hide it from them, but he’d quickly realized that the mission at hand was far more important than him, and he didn’t want them to lose their focus on it because they were busy worrying over his condition. So, when he’d a moment to himself, he’d slipped away to bandage himself up, and now he was quietly dealing with the aftereffects of his injury.

“Oliver,” Felicity said, distracting him from his thoughts and, for a moment at least, giving him something else to focus on besides his pain. He looked over to see her standing in front of the case where he kept his suit, holding part of it out for inspection. “Where did this tear in your suit come from?”

“I’m not sure,” Oliver stalled, while silently cursing himself for not thinking to repair that tear after he’d finished tending to his injury. “But I did take a nasty fall. That must have been where.” He hated lying to Felicity, but he’d made his decision, and he had to stick to it.

“This isn’t road crash, Oliver,” she said, shaking her head. “It looks like someone slashed it with a knife.” She paused, her gaze settling on his, concern written in every line of her face.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Oliver lied, suppressing a wince when he shifted in his chair and the movement made the pain in his side flare up. “I think my suit deflected the worst of it.” He turned his head away from Felicity, knowing that she knew him well enough to see that he was lying if he looked her in the eyes for too long.

“Oliver,” Felicity said, and the note of horror in her voice had his gaze snapping back to hers in an instant. “You’re bleeding.” Oliver twisted around to see a spot of spreading red on his sweater. He must have bled through his bandage.

“Damn it,” he muttered, pressing a hand to his side.

“Oliver!” Felicity said sharply, and he turned to look at her once more. “Why didn’t you tell anyone that you’d been injured?”

“Because the mission is more important,” Oliver replied through gritted teeth and a clenched jaw, “and I didn’t want anyone to lose focus worrying about me.”

“Lose focus?” Felicity cried. “ _ Lose focus?! _ Damn it, Oliver, I’m more concerned with losing you!”

“Which is exactly why I didn’t tell anyone I was hurt!” Oliver shouted. “Because I knew the moment you all found out, you’d waste time worrying about me when there are far more important things to worry about right now than some injury of mine that isn’t even life threatening!”

“As far as I’m concerned,  _ you _ are the priority,” Felicity said. “This city needs you at your best. The _ team _ needs you at your best.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Oliver insisted. “I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself.”

“I don’t doubt that that’s true,” Felicity replied, “but you didn’t do a very good job of that this time around, did you?” She gestured toward the bloodstain on Oliver’s sweater to illustrate her point. He didn’t argue, because she was right, but he wished his credibility hadn’t been so undermined in regards to his assertion that he didn’t want or need anyone to worry about him because he could take care of himself and there were more important things to be concerned with than him.


End file.
